Hedge Fund Manager Believes Charity Causes Poverty

(Photo: κύριαsity / Flickr)It’s so great — truly heartwarming — to see billionaires devoting their deepest thoughts to finding solutions for eradicating poverty.

For example, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful America’s homeless people are going to be once they hear about Andy Kessler, who has been thinking long and hard about their plight. Kessler is a former hedge-fund whiz, which means he was in the business of making…well, money. Beaucoup bundles of it.

Having seen his 16-year-old son volunteer at a homeless center, this champion of the rich was motivated to develop a plan to solve homelessness. Here it is: Stop dishing out soup to those people and shut down all the shelters.

Yes, the problem is “all this volunteering and charitable giving.” These homeless folks ought to be working, he told his son. But, Kessler lectured in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, they’re not, “because someone is feeding, clothing, and in effect, bathing them.”

Gee, Andy, I recall that Jesus said something about our Godly duty to feed and clothe the needy — and even to wash the feet of the poor.

But apparently, Jesus just didn’t grasp the essence of true morality. Blessed are the Rich, is Kessler’s spiritual mantra. “Where does money come from…to help the unfortunate,” he asked? And yea, I say unto thee, the Holy Hedge-Funder answered his own deep question: It comes from “someone [who] worked productively and created wealth.”

Thus, he sagely concluded, the answer to poverty, to truly helping the poor, is not to pamper the takers, but to provide more tax breaks for the makers of wealth (like him) — the ones who produce “good old-fashioned economic growth.”

Wow, what a role model this guy is for his son — and for all of America’s youth!

Wouldn’t you like to buy him for what he’s worth…and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth? That surely would fund a whole lot of homeless services.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

Hedge Fund Manager Believes Charity Causes Poverty

(Photo: κύριαsity / Flickr)It’s so great — truly heartwarming — to see billionaires devoting their deepest thoughts to finding solutions for eradicating poverty.

For example, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful America’s homeless people are going to be once they hear about Andy Kessler, who has been thinking long and hard about their plight. Kessler is a former hedge-fund whiz, which means he was in the business of making…well, money. Beaucoup bundles of it.

Having seen his 16-year-old son volunteer at a homeless center, this champion of the rich was motivated to develop a plan to solve homelessness. Here it is: Stop dishing out soup to those people and shut down all the shelters.

Yes, the problem is “all this volunteering and charitable giving.” These homeless folks ought to be working, he told his son. But, Kessler lectured in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, they’re not, “because someone is feeding, clothing, and in effect, bathing them.”

Gee, Andy, I recall that Jesus said something about our Godly duty to feed and clothe the needy — and even to wash the feet of the poor.

But apparently, Jesus just didn’t grasp the essence of true morality. Blessed are the Rich, is Kessler’s spiritual mantra. “Where does money come from…to help the unfortunate,” he asked? And yea, I say unto thee, the Holy Hedge-Funder answered his own deep question: It comes from “someone [who] worked productively and created wealth.”

Thus, he sagely concluded, the answer to poverty, to truly helping the poor, is not to pamper the takers, but to provide more tax breaks for the makers of wealth (like him) — the ones who produce “good old-fashioned economic growth.”

Wow, what a role model this guy is for his son — and for all of America’s youth!

Wouldn’t you like to buy him for what he’s worth…and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth? That surely would fund a whole lot of homeless services.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.